Shirt.



PATENTED. SEPT. 17, 1907.

L. BERNSTEIN.

SHIRT.

APPLIUATION FILED MAR. 29, 1907.

anon Lion Zea/(2.5 Ber/05765721 l Vi ha um PATENT OFFICE.

LEWIS BERNSTEIN, OF GRAFTON, WEST VIRGINIA.

SHIRT.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 17, 1907.

Application filed March 29,1907. Serial No. 365,422.

shirt waist, and to attach to the waist band of the trousers, or to the dress skirt, whereby the suspender ends or attaching means are contained beneath the shirt, or shirt-waist, between the same and the inner garment, and are invisible, said supporting means being adjustable on the shirt, or shirt waist, to determine the height of the trousers or skirt, and being themselves adjustable or capable of being lengthened or shortened.

The essential object of the invention is to avoid the use of the conventional suspenders, and belt or other garment supporting means, and to thereby conduce to the comfort of the wearer, especially in warnr weather, and to provide means whereby the weight of the trousers or skirt, may be suspended directly from the shirt or shirt waist.

With the above objects in view, my invention consists of the improved shirt, or shirt waist, and in the construction arrangement, and combination of parts thereof which I will herein after describe and claim.

In the accompanying drawings forming part of this specification and in which similar reference characters indicate like parts in the several views, Figure 1 is a front view of.an open-front shirt having the lower edges of the bosom portions thereof separated from the corresponding upper edge of the front of the skirt and adapted to fold back to give ready access to the interior supporting means. Fig. 2 is a fragmentary view showing a portion of the back of the shirt looking towards the interior. Figs. 3, 4 and 5 are modifications hereinafter described.

The present improvements are applicable to any of the conventional forms or styles of shirts, or shirt waists, whether stiff or soft bosom or open-front or back. They are also equally applicable to such garments whether designed for the use of men, women children. For present purposes, I illustrate a shirt wherein the bosom portions A is open at the front, the line of division extending to the bottom of the bosom and the lower edges of the two parts of the bosom being unattached to, or separated from, the corresponding top edge of the front of the skirt B to enable the bosom portions to be folded or turned back- Wardly to give ready access to the interior of said shirt.

The upper edge of the front of the skirt is finished with an appropriate band, a, over which folds the lower unattached edges of the bosom portfons, said band having a button or other fastening, bf and said bosom portions having the lower portions of their meeting edges provided with button holes or other means adapted to engage the aforesaid button or fastening on the band, a. This method of forming the shirt bosom not only gives ready access to the interior garment-supporting means which I will presently describe, but it provides for an effective ventilation of the interior of the shirt, and allows air to enter beneath the bosom and circulate over the body of the wearer.

In a former patent granted to me March 5, 1907, No. 845,999, I show a means whereby garment-supporters in the form of short suspender ends are attached to the shirt and designed to be concealed beneath the shirt, and to have their lower ends extend through suitable plackets formed in the skirt of the shirt forward of the usual side seams, said supporting-means being vertically adjustable. In the present invention instead of forming a vertical series of holes in the shirt for the ad justment of the supporting means, I attach to the inside of the shirt at suitable points corresponding to the outer edges of the bosom, a strip of suitable material, 0, provided with a vertical series of loose tabs, D, which afford means for the adjustable attachment of the garment-supporting devices hereinafter mentioned. These strips serve as reinforces for the shirt and they are stitched or otherwise permanently attached to the inside of the shirt. The tabs D may be constructed integral with these reinforcing strips by folding the strips to form the tabs, as shown in Fig. 3, or the tabs may be separate pieces stitched at their upper edges to said strips as shown in Fig. 4. The tabs may also be of inelastic material either like or unlike the material of which the strips are formed, or said tabs may be pieces of elastic or webbing, D, as shown in Fig. 5. If made of webbing, the lowermost or in fact any of the tabs, may be provided with a button-hole to enable said tab to be buttoned or otherwise fastened directly to the button or fastening device on the waist-band of the trousers, or to a button or device on the waist-band of a dressskirt. Whether made of elastic or inelastic material, the tabs are free at their lower ends to enable them to be readily engaged with the supporting devices.

In Fig. l I show a form of garment-supporting means of the general type shown in my aforesaid former patent except that in lieu of a button having a shank to be passed through eyelets or openings in the shirt, the top ring E of the supporting-means is provided with a well known form of detachable-clamp F adapted to engage any one of the tabs and thereby detachably secure the garment-supporting means securely in place on the in terior of the shirt, or shirt-waist. Instead of the clampdevice mentioned, the upper ends of the garment-supporting means, or the ring portions thereof, may be provided with any other well known form of attaching device. For instance, an ordinary safety-pin, may be engaged with the free end of any one of the tabs to thereby secure the supporting means to said tab. Whatever the fastening used it will be of such a character that its attaching portions may readily engage any of the tabs, and may be moved from one tab to the other.

to vertically adjust the height of the point of attachment of the garment-supporting means to the inside of the shirt.

The back-portion of the shirt will have the usual slit in the back of the skirt-portion thereof, and secured to said back above said slit is a reinforcing strip, G, having tabs, H, similar to those before described, for the side reinforcing strips, said tabs, 11, being designed for engagement with the attaching ends of the garmentsupporting means similar to those before described.

In operation, the supporting means are properly adjusted on the inside of the shirt, or shirt waist, and their lower or free ends are designed to pass through the space between the lower unattached edges of the bosom and the adjacent upper edge of the front portion of the skirt and to attach to the usual front and side buttons of the trousers; in the case of the back-attaching means, the ends are designed to pass through the slit or opening in the back of the skirt and to attach to the buttons on the back of the waist-band of the trousers.

The garment-supporting means are preferably each formed of a piece of elastic folded upon itself, at 5, and having its folded portion stitched together, at 6, and provided with a button hole, 7, the free end of this folded portion of each elastic being provided with a metal or other loop, 8. The free end of the other part of the elastic is passed through the ring E at the top of the supporter and is thence returned and passed through the loop 8, on the first-named end of the elastic and is finally folded back upon itself and has its extremity provided with buckle, 9, of some appropriate type designed to enable the elastic supporters to be lengthened or shortened, as desired. However, I do not limit the present improvements to this or any other particular character of supporting-means, but for some reasons I prefer to use the elastic pieces arranged substantially as shown; in some instances, as with the shirt-waists for children, I provide the lower tab D. with a buttonhole to enable said tab to attach directly to the button on the waist-band of the trousers. The purposes of these supporters and their arrangement on the inside of the shirt is to enable me to dispense with the usual sus' penders, which pass over the shoulders and are annoying in hot weather and are also unsightly when worn with the shirt-waist or the general summer or outing shirt, and to dispense with belts and to allow the supporters to be used to support the trousers, or dressskirt, directly from the shirt, or shirt-waist, the reinforcement of the shirt by the strips and the providing of said strips with the tabs, being sufficient to prevent any damage done to the shirt by reason of the strain upon it.

The supporters not only allow the trousers to be supported directly from the shirt, but both front and back supporters may be readily moved to higher or lower planes by connecting their upper ends with the tabs, as the circumstances may make desirable or necessary.

It is manifest that a shirt of the construction shown in Fig. 1, namely one wherein the bosom is divided along the front and has its lower edgeunattached to the front of the skirt, might be provided with the vertical row of eyelets for the adjustable adjustment of short suspender ends in the manner shown and described in my aforesaid prior patent, the bosom sections allowing for easy access to such supporters.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent,

is: v

l. A garment of the character described having reinforcing strips on its interior with a vertical series of folded portions forming tabs which are united to the strips at one end and have their opposite ends free and unattached, and garinent-supporters having means for detachably engaging said tabs, said supporters have means for supporting nether garments.

2. A garment of the character described, said garment having a bosom portion divided along its front and having the divided portions unattached to the skirt at the bottom to enable said portions to be turned back, and garment supporters contained beneath the shirt, said divided portions of the shirt affording access to said supporters.

3. A garment of the character described, said garment having a bosom divided along its front and having the divided portions unattached to the skirt at the bottom to enable said portions to be turned back, garment supporters contained beneath the shirt and means whereby said supporters are vertically adjustable on the inside of the shirt, said divided portions of the shirt affording access to said supporters.

In testimony whereof I have hereuhto set my hand in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

LEWIS BERNSTEIN.

Witnesses CHAS. W. STEEL, GUY E. WILLIAMS. 

